Supporting conservative causes

In 1976, as he entered his second term in the legislature, Thompson and several conservative colleagues, including Daniel Wesley "Dan" Richey of Ferriday, Louisiana, cast critical votes in the House Civil Law Committee against the proposed Equal Rights Amendment, which lost 5-9 in the panel and was therefore not referred to the full House for an up-or-down vote. Thompson's right-to-life supporters organized against the ERA on the premise that if implemented it would have federalized family law. Therefore, they convinced the lawmaker to reverse his previously stated support for the ERA. Lafayette has been a center of antiabortion activism since the U.S. Supreme Court issued the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, which legalized access to abortion.

Certain Lafayette physicians signed a statement declaring that life begins before birth and vowed not to perform abortions, which...Read More